News Today — Gone Tomorrow

With the recent developments in Egypt, it has made me stop and think about what’s going on in the world today. I’m not well steeped in history nor am I particularly interested in knowing who did what to whom and when. However, I do find it interesting to reflect back on some of the more important events in history. The civil rights movement is a rather important part of US history and human history. I would also say that the JFK assassination was pretty important, too.

My interest lies in how these events are viewed well after the fact. People still learn about the civil rights movement in school and they also still learn about the JFK assassination, I’m sure. I don’t know, however, if they learn about some of the other perspectives of these major events. Not that I’m advocating one side over the other, but I think it’d be interesting to be teaching children not just about the civil rights movement, but about those who opposed it and more importantly, why they opposed it. I think it is important to learn about the differences of opinion.

How come? Simply because it seems to me that many of the issues that are present in the world today are not brand new issues. I won’t begin to pretend that I completely understand what is going on in Egypt and anyone who tells you they do is probably lying, but it seems that there’s this age-old archetype playing out where one side is not playing fairly with the other side where the sides are reflected in pro-Mubarak and pro-reformers.

It doesn’t seem like we’ve come to understand that living on this planet needn’t be a competition for the natural resources. My point is that this is not a new issue. This is something that our ancestors have been playing out for centuries through wars, invasions, and raids. I am not condemning war nor am I condoning it — merely taking a closer look at some of the reasons it seems to happen.

With the speed of our evolving world increasing at an alarming rate, it’s not clear to me just how this situation in Egypt will play out and more importantly — how it will affect other countries. Some would say that what is happening in Egypt is a result of what happened in Tunisia. I’m more inclined to see happenings in the world as correlational rather than cause-and-effect. Who knows: maybe the movement in Tunisia spawned the movement in Egypt. I wonder, though, what will be spawned as a result of the movement in Egypt. Will it be more sparring and jockeying for position? Will a calmness overlay? Something tells me that situations like these usually get worse before they get better.